Chronologically Speaking, Part Twenty: The Shumballa Fragment ("The Snout in the Dark")

Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories. Twenty entries! Cheers!

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The Shumballa fragment, later edited, re-written, and retitled "The Snout in the Dark" by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, is an unfinished draft begun in the 1930s by Robert E. Howard. The de Camp / Carter version appeared for the first time in Conan of Cimmeria, but the original Howard version would not be made public until the Donald Grant publication ten years later in Jewels of Gwahlur.​

Sometimes this story is referred to as "Untitled draft (Amboola awakened slowly...)" because of the first line of the story, but I've taken to calling it "the Shumballa fragment" due to its setting. de Camp and Carter renamed the city to "Meroê."

​Because there's so little information about this fragment, and because Conan is in very little of it, this will probably be one of the shortest entries in this column. Let's see what we've got:

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• The story takes place in Kush, southward on the Hyborian Age map, in the capital city of Shumballa. Kush is mentioned in many Conan stories, but is not the most oft-visited. None of the other stories that take place in or near Kush ("Queen of the Black Coast," "Xuthal of the Dusk," or "Red Nails") make mention of Shumballa.
• When Conan makes his entrance to the story a good ways in, he says that he has previously been a pirate: "I came here to seek my fortune. I was formerly a corsair."
  • But what type of pirate? A Black Coast buccaneer? A Red Brotherhood member harrying the cities of Turan? A Barachan scoundrel terrorizing the traders of Messantia? Well, luckily for us, we find out in the next sentence.
• Conan is identified as Amra the Lion: "We have heard tales of you, whom men call Amra the Lion. But if you are no longer a corsair, what are you now?" Conan responds, "A penniless wanderer." This means that the story takes place at least after "Queen of the Black Coast."

Conan ended "Queen of the Black Coast" setting his ride (Bêlit's ship, the Tigress) aflame. That would render him owning only the clothes on his back and in need of a way to get back north. This is not the strongest thread to go on, but it makes sense for the Shumballa fragment to then fall right after "Queen of the Black Coast" because of Conan's geographical and economic situation connecting the two.

Here's the most recent version of our chronology with this in mind:

1. The Frost-Giant's Daughter
2. The God in the Bowl
3. Rogues in the House
4. The Tower of the Elephant
5. The Nestor synopsis ("The Hall of the Dead")
6. Queen of the Black Coast
7. The Shumballa fragment ("The Snout in the Dark")
8. Xuthal of the Dusk
9. Iron Shadows in the Moon
10. The Devil in Iron
11. The People of the Black Circle
12. A Witch Shall Be Born
13. The Man-Eaters of Zamboula
14. Black Colossus
15. The Pool of the Black One
16. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
17. Red Nails
18. Beyond the Black River
19. The Phoenix on the Sword
20. The Scarlet Citadel
21. The Hour of the Dragon